Headed by a Snake

Coraline Heartsong had more-or-less accepted her death or otherwise state of super-severe maybe-dying-would-be-better injury. But then Zash arrived.

So... maybe death wasn't a 100% guarantee?

The dragon breathed.

Zash stood fast, holding her shield out. She activated the protective runes engraved on its inside, then stacked two defensive layers behind it.

--and that was about the time Coraline realized that Zash had not, in fact, conjured Absorption-Type formations... nor Dispersion-Type ones.

The magical barriers she quick-cast and reinforced... belonged to the Deflection-Type category.

Thus, it turned one screaming elf and one unreasonably reckless human into a fast and fiery ball of death, hurtling through space, smashing into this building and that building.

There was one nice thing that happened, though. Beatrice seemed to realize that they were in trouble, as there was an extra layer of fiery protection on top of Zash's Spell layers.

Dispersion-Type-- because she loved her contractor.

And Coraline loved her even more, for it.

The Witch-ball's impact was... surprisingly soft (probably having something to do with Beatrice.) However, as the dust began to settle, Coraline was... fairly certain that they'd destroyed a two-story building carved out of solid stone.

--one of those buildings that had probably been standing long before Making was a thing.

"D... ⌈Dust Clear!⌋"

There was wooden and fabric debris everywhere-- but most of it was vaporized either by force or flame.

Still, Coraline was careful to avoid anything sharp as she attempted to crawl out of the impact crater on her hands and knees.

It might have been her fatigue, it might have been her nerves... or it might have been the journey of several hundred yalms in a scant few seconds. Whatever it was, she found her stomach and adjacent organs all rallying against her in discontent.

And, though she was the queen of her body, she gave in to the wills of her denizens... projectile-vomiting onto the dirt and broken stone in front of her.

"Yo... you-- you alive, Heartsong?"

Zash's voice came from behind... somewhere. She sounded just as miserable as Coraline felt.

Coraline rocked back, sitting on her butt.

The feeling of shock, a throbbing headache-- also, various aches and pains, all covered with a thick blanket of sick confirmed that she was alive.

Zashleigh also began to vomit from wherever she was.

Somewhere behind, Coraline heard Zashleigh also vomiting.

The colorful sounds made her gag, but Coraline held her breath to avoid puking again.

"Still alive, Zash..." She said, taking care not to inhale... "somehow."

This... was Coraline's life. This is what it had become.

Dead boyfriend.

Middle of a battlefield, being hunted down by a giant lizard.

Vertigo.

Nausea, of course.

Uniform covered in vomit-- which she felt extra guilty about, since it was a new set.

It was bad... really bad.

Of course, she *wanted* to cry.

Coraline would have absolutely loved if she could have sat back, relaxed, waited for reinforcements... all while crying a little-- or a lot.

But... because life absolutely sucked, she did not have the luxury.

She was the girl from Evocs.

When plans went to shite... it was up to an Evoker to re-establish the status quo.

So... she took a breath and wiped her budding tears. She cast a quick ⌈Cleaning⌋ Spell on herself and another at Zash (while keeping out of projectile-vomit range.)

And then she started brainstorming for a way they could both survive the next ten minutes...

...

Zashleigh Yates heard a *shwump* sound-- a bit muted, but the unmistakable sound of Dessi's ⌈Blink⌋.

"What--" Exclaimed Dessi, "What... kind of DRUGS is the newbie on that she can still be standing after getting hit by DRAGONFIRE?!?"

"We did *not* get hit by the textbook definition of dragonfire," Heartsong said, unphased.

"Uh, yeah," Dessi said in a flat tone, "So I noticed that you didn't explicitly deny--"

"I'm not on any drugs, Gilchrist," Heartsong sighed. "I suspect that Zash did some major Spellbreaking, just now. It saved both our butts."

That was her cue.

Zash tried to move her body, to get up from where she'd collapsed on a mound of dirt and debris.

Pain coursed through her every nerve, threatening to rob her consciousness if she continued.

So... she did not.

"I... couldn't Spellbreak the blast," She managed to say.

Talking-- it hurt a bit... but not so much as trying to move. She couldn't quite understand why that was-- but that was her reality.

"The dragonfire..." She continued, "It was... too fast... too..."

"Furious?" Dessi suggested.

"No, too... foreign."

"But... but that's crazy," Dessi said, her voice trembling with emotion. "So you just... used a layered Mana Shield??? Against a literal DRAGON?!?"

Zash had no response for that. She was just as surprised that both she and Heartsong had survived. And it was baffling that the elf seemed largely unaffected.

"Did you at least use a Dispersion-Type layer?" Dessi asked innocently.

Zash did not. She didn't have the confidence to speedily cast something so complex in such a high-stress situation.

...Thinking on it, her and Coraline's survival was luck that bordered on miraculous. She would need some heavy-level mathematics to accurately determine the force involved and compare it to the human/elf splat threshold. But judging by how Zash felt, they had gotten precariously close.

Heartsong cradled her head in thought, "If you didn't use Spellbreak, then that means... No-- that could mean everything-- no... all I'm left with are more questions~"

The girl then turned away, muttering to herself.

Zash had heard rumors before that Heartsong talked to herself sometimes. There was a whole world inside that little girl's head...

Granted, talking out loud wasn't so weird-- many Witches had worse quirks.

The problem, however... was that Heartsong was *not* a scatterbrained dreamer.

When taking her age into consideration, she was the smartest and most level-headed in the Tower.

Whatever she knew... whatever she was hiding...

--Zash wasn't sure she wanted to know.

She felt a hand rest on her forehead, cool-to-the-touch.

Heartsong was examining her condition. It didn't feel good as a squad leader to show weakness-- but Zash didn't have the physical capacity to stop her.

"Gilchrist, are we bubbled?" The elf girl asked with a stern expression.

"Y-yeah," Dessi answered. "I made sure to shake up the surroundings, too. We have enough time for a breather, at least."

Heartsong leaned forward, her voice a low whisper, "Zash, how bad is it?"

"H-how bad is what?"

"Don't play dumb," Heartsong chided. "Not now."

Zash closed her eyes.

"I can barely move. The mission--"

"--can wait," Heartsong said.

The tone in her voice wasn't something that could be argued against.

...But Zash figured if she could trust anyone in her squad to override her commands, it would be the sharp-eyed Coraline Heartsong.

The two younger Witches helped Zash consume three vials of the Sapphire Tower's finest. They did have a fourth, but Zash had to refuse. She could feel the icy bite of potion sickness at the edges of her Mana Heart... and it would only worsen as the sun went on.

And for all that...

Zash could sit up with her own power... and, if she really needed to, she was confident in limping or crawling a reasonably short distance.

"The rest of the squad?" Heartsong asked.

The question was... indirect, as if the girl feared the worst.

"Braina was injured when a dragon hit the first emplacement," Zash replied, "but everyone else should be fine."

"So, like... with all due respect," Dessi began, "how could everyone be fine with a dragon involved?"

Zash bit her upper lip, "After we lost the first, we overcharged the second emplacement to shoot the enemy flier down. It was dangerous, but we managed to avoid any more casualties with that."

"How many lizards are in our area?" Heartsong asked.

"We... couldn't confirm the kill," Zash shook her head. "So there still could be two... the red one and--"

"Purple McPurpleface," Dessi growled. "If I see him, I'm gonna jam an entire Shadow Spear up his--"

"An encounter with a *single* lizard nearly killed us, Gilchrist," Heartsong scolded.

"Truuuue," Dessi groaned.

Heartsong shook her head... "Zash... I think I know the answer already, but... do you have the Comms Crystal?"

Zash felt a stab of pain lance through her heart, "It's... back at the pottery shop."

Heartsong's grimace cut even deeper, but she nodded in understanding, "One of the other girls probably took it, I'm sure... but without the crystal, all three of us need to pay attention for any short-distance Comms."

"Ah, right. I have a question," Dessi said, pursing her lips. "Now, I'm super grateful to you-- me and the newbie both are, for sure. But Zash... what the flying f*ck is going on inside that skull of yours to LITERALLY. DIVE. INTO. DRAGONFIRE???!!!"

Zash clenched her eyes shut. On top of the dull, constant physical and emotional pain she was feeling, her ears were literally ringing from Dessi' shouting.

"Look, I get that you're SUUUPER smart!" Dessi yelled, "And your grades and physical tests are SUUUUPER PERFECT, but stars and stones, b*tch, you're just as human as we are!"

Heartsong raised her hand, "Senior Gilchrist."

"YOU know what I mean, moshi moshi B*TCH!" Dessi yelled.

Ohhh, she was mad~

Heartsong put her hand down, "D-disregard."